Opinion: Eating a Raw Plant Based Diet For a Healthier and More Sustainable World

Now that the good news is out there for all to read that eating meat and other animal products is completely unnecessary -- and perhaps even counterproductive --- for a healthy lifestyle, many people have elected to take the more compassionate choice of going vegan.

Furthermore, a raw vegan diet is far more efficient in terms of food production and utilization of energetic resources. As the population of humans continues to grow on this planet, consuming an inefficient meat based diet is literally starving masses of people that could otherwise be fed with the edible food consumed by those animals instead.

Taking that vital step to "veganhood" seems a very commendable way of reducing our karmic burden by showing respect for our fellow creatures and their lives. Furthermore, by choosing a vegan diet we are no longer contributing to the tremendous suffering that factory farming and the slaughter of sentient animals undoubtedly causes.

Nevertheless, once you have seen the light and chosen the right diet consistent with your conscience, another important step remains to be taken for optimal health and better nutrition. That is to cease eating cooked foods.

This might sound strange, but if you take some time to think about it, no other animal kills their food by cooking it. Cooking is an unnatural process unknown among our fellow creatures, and severely damages the quality of the food we eat and our ability to benefit from it nutritionally.

Basically, cooking food at temperatures above that of the sun, or about 110 degrees Fahrenheit, destroys so many vital nutrients in food, denatures the enzymes in food that can facilitate digestion, and does absolutely nothing to enhance your beneficial gut flora that assist you in getting the best nutrition out of the food you eat.